35th Maccabi Games

As an athletic competition for Jewish teens, or what Sokol described as a “junior Olympics,” 900 athletes will compete in Birmingham from July 30 through Aug. 4 for their area’s team, such as Team Birmingham. If athletes come from a smaller city that does not have enough participants to form a team, they are welcomed onto another team, like Team Birmingham is doing with its sister cities, Vinnytsia, Ukraine, and Rosh Haayin, Israel.